Times of isolation call for creativity and imagination to keep our minds active!
For those of you planning a little gardening… Function Jigsaw have put together a few tips and things to avoid, that may just prevent you from picking up an overuse gardening injury. Read on to find out how your body works…
What are we likely to expect?
Continuous and repetitive activities can sometimes put undue stress on our joints, muscles and tendons – especially when they aren’t used to it.
Let’s take Gardening as our example. Repetitive wrist movements, through trowel-ling, digging, weeding or even DIY painting are perfect examples of when our wrist extensors and flexors are working harder than usual. This can often result in local-ised pain in the elbow region and sometimes inflammation, where our tendons at-tach.
Pain on the outside of the elbow is more commonly known as Tennis Elbow (wrist extensors). Pain on the inside of the elbow is more commonly known as golfers el-bow (wrist flexors)
FUN FACT: Tennis & Golfers elbow are actually less common in Tennis & Golf play-ers, as the tolerance of their elbow Tendons (wrist extensors & flexors) are much greater and can withstand more strain…And is more common in those that do gar-dening, DIY or type a lot on a computer.
TIPS to help prevent elbow pain
o Try not to grip tools so hard – if this is one of your habits.
o Change hands every so often- allow your non-dominant hand do some work
o Have regular breaks – every 20 mins
o Use your shoulder when you can, instead of your wrist- i.e. Fence painting
o Forearm resistance training (RECOMMENDED) – to increase the tolerance of your tendons.
Crouching and bending over to dig holes and plant plants, is also a recipe for back pain.
A constant dull ache across the low back, that frustratingly can leave you only doing half a job. Why not start right to begin with?
For a strong and healthy back, both our core and our glutes play pivotal roles, so we have to make sure both groups of muscles are active.
TIPS to help prevent back pain
o Adopt a bear crawl position for those (Image 2) deep holes you have to dig. Not only does this keep our spine in neutral, it’s a great core exercise!
o Keep a straight back (upper and lower) when digging whilst standing- Use your legs!
o Lift things close to your feet especially heavier objects
o Maintain a straight back, use your glutes to initiate the lift- not your back
The aforementioned TIPS above, not only relate to gardening, but also cleaning out cupboards, de-cluttering the garage, paining the skirting boards, typing at a computer or rearranging the loft- so you can apply our tips universally, depending on the household jobs you’re undertaking.
Contact your local physio in Leicester today – Function Jigsaw
